Member's Off-site Blogs

real democracy .....

‘On May 1, Bolivia's recently elected president, Evo
Morales, the country's first indigenous leader, put on a tin hat and made the
declaration that much of the country had been waiting to hear. "The time
has come," he said, announcing "a historic day in which Bolivia
retakes absolute control of our natural resources". Mr Morales spoke of
"looting by foreign companies" and said it was time the armed forces
"occupy all the energy fields in Bolivia". But he was off pace. The
army had already moved into Bolivia's foreign-owned energy fields, refineries
and distribution depots.’

‘I have spent the past three
weeks filming in the hillside barrios of Caracas, in streets and breeze-block
houses that defy gravity and torrential rain and emerge at night like fireflies
in the fog. Caracas is said to be one of the world's toughest cities, yet I
have known no fear; the poorest have welcomed my colleagues and me with a
warmth characteristic of ordinary Venezuelans but also with the unmistakable
confidence of a people who know that change is possible and who, in their
everyday lives, are reclaiming noble concepts long emptied of their meaning in
the west: "reform", "popular democracy",
"equity", "social justice" and, yes, "freedom".’